"I was just thinking about hitting the double. I was not thinking that I could win the match. I was not thinking about making history as being the first ever women to win a match."

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This is a quote of what dart player Fallon Sherrock said after she became the first women to win a match at the 2020 PDC world championship. I think this is a great illustration of how an elite performer (under pressure) main focus was on what was required as opposed to the outcome.

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The majority of research suggests that for most individuals, your performance will be better when you focus on your processes, but it is still OK to utilise outcome, and performance goals during competition. Lilby, Maynard, and Graydon (1999) conducted a study involving a soccer task, which showed participants who used a combination of goals produced better performances than participants who used only one type of goal or no goal, for both practise and competition situations.

 

You often hear professional sportspeople talk about outcome goals before a competition. This is perfectly fine, and fine to do so during an event *, as long as these thoughts are not at the expense of your process goals. Your main focus at the time of (or just before) execution should be on your process goals, with the knowledge that if you do them well, you are more likely to perform to your potential for that given day.

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*This statement is most applicable to athletes with higher self-confidence, higher expectations of success, and where their self-image is not wrapped up with their performance result.

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Competition process goals can be centered around any areas of performance such as:

• Mental - e.g., display positive body language throughout an event.

• Physical - e.g., execute your warm-up routine.

• Strategy - e.g., execute a tactical plan.

• Technique - e.g., focus on a particular skill.

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Technique - Holistic or Part?

It is important to note that if you choose to focus on an element of your technique, it has been suggested that a 'holistic' goal is more effective than a 'part' goal. An example of a holistic goal in golf would be to focus on swing the club 'smoothly' (this puts the focal point on the movement as a 'whole')., whereas a part goal would be to focus on a particular part of the golf swing, e.g., grip pressure, or a component of the takeaway.

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It's believed that focusing on a part goal is more likely to disrupt the automatic execution of the skill (go to the Attention Module to learn more), whereas holistic goals may help reduce the effects of performance stress while preserving skill automaticity.

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Mullen, Jones, Oliver, and Hardy (2016) conducted a 2-day study where they randomly assigned participants to a holistic or part process goal group. The participants completed a race driving task on a simulator. They were provided time to practice, and chose from a list of goals relating to their use of a steering wheel when negotiating bends. The holistic goals were 'smooth', 'glide' and 'easy'. Whereas the part goals focused on grip pressure and using the outside hand to turn the wheel. Pressure was added as the participants were told they were taking part in a team competition, and would receive a financial reward depending upon how the team did. The group who performed with a holistic goals outperformed the group who used part goals.